New Wolters Kluwer Survey Finds 86% of North American Finance Teams in Early Stages of AI Adoption

September 23, 2025 at 09:00 AM EDT

Survey also reveals finance leaders’ top AI use cases; highlights need for finance teams to improve alignment around AI strategy, ROI measurement, investment

Wolters Kluwer, a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services, today released new survey findings revealing the current state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption among corporate finance functions in North America. The data, gathered during the regional North America CCH® Tagetik inTouch25 conference, shows that while interest in AI continues to grow, most North American finance teams remain in the early stages of adoption.

According to the survey, 86% of North American finance leaders report that their organizations are either beginning to explore AI use cases (53%), or are piloting AI in select areas (33%). Six percent say AI is already scaled or embedded across their finance functions, underscoring a significant, untapped opportunity for AI to drive digital transformation within finance.

Madhur Aggarwal, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Corporate Performance Management at Wolters Kluwer, said:

“Finance leaders are clearly recognizing the potential of AI, but the journey from exploration to scaled deployment is complex. At Wolters Kluwer, we’re helping organizations bridge that gap, through customer-driven innovation, industry-best technology, and expert support. Our award-winning CCH Tagetik Intelligent Platform with Ask AI is designed to meet this moment. By embedding AI into familiar workflows, we’re empowering finance teams to accelerate AI exploration and adoption in ways that are digitally transforming the efficiency, accuracy, and strategic ability of the Office of the CFO.”

Additional survey findings from the CCH Tagetik North America inTouch 25 conference include:

Top AI use case for driving time savings in Finance: Variance analysis + insights

When asked which AI use case would be most helpful in freeing up their finance team’s time for more strategic work, 31% of respondents pointed to variance analysis and insights as the top choice.
Automating routine reporting and automating predictive forecasting were each selected by 25%. Notably, 51% of respondents also said that access to proven AI use cases and success stories would give them more confidence in deploying agentic AI more broadly.
These findings not only highlight the value of targeted AI applications in freeing up finance team time to focus on more strategic initiatives, but also the critical need for organizations to develop and share finance-specific AI use cases to accelerate adoption and impact.

Methods for evaluating ROI for AI investments within finance vary widely

North American finance leaders are taking diverse approaches to evaluating their return on AI investments within the finance function: 25% measure ROI through cost savings, while 23% focus on time saved on manual processes.
However, 22% admitted they don’t currently measure AI ROI, and 15% were not sure how their finance organizations measure the AI ROI.
Notably, 37% of respondents also said that the top barrier to scaling AI across their finance function was unclear ROI or business case for doing so, underscoring the need for standardized models for evaluating AI’s impact.

Finance leaders indicate mixed comfort levels with degree of AI investment

Survey respondents expressed varied levels of comfort with their organization’s current financial investment in deploying AI to digitally transform finance.
While 14% said they are very comfortable with their organization’s level of AI investment, a larger number (38%) reported being somewhat comfortable.
Notably, 17% felt the investment is too low, and a significant 28% were not sure, highlighting the need for more clarity around AI budgeting decisions.

Leadership alignment on AI strategy remains a work in progress

Only 24% of respondents said their finance leadership is fully aligned on the strategic role of AI. A larger portion (43%) reported partial alignment, with engagement varying across leaders.
Meanwhile, 9% said leadership is misaligned, 8% noted no alignment, and 16% were not sure of the level of alignment, highlighting the need for finance leaders to develop and clearly communicate a unified vision on how they expect AI to shape their finance operations.

Jennifer Buchanan, Partner at CFO Solutions, said:

“The breadth of compelling AI use cases showcased at CCH Tagetik North America InTouch was impressive. It’s exciting to see finance teams not only exploring AI but already leveraging it to accelerate insights and enhance decision-making. The event underscored a pivotal shift: AI is no longer theoretical, it’s being actively implemented with measurable impact.”

Seventy-nine finance leaders responded to this survey, conducted on Sept. 17, 2025, during the North America CCH Tagetik inTouch25, in Houston, Texas. At regional CCH Tagetik inTouch25 events taking place this Fall in more than a dozen global locations, financial professionals join together to explore, share and learn how Wolters Kluwer’s award-winning, AI-powered CCH® Tagetik Intelligent Platform can digitally transform the efficiency, accuracy, and strategic ability of the Office of the CFO.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software solutions and services for professionals in healthcare; tax and accounting; financial and corporate compliance; legal and regulatory; corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2024 annual revenues of €5.9 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,600 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250923769930/en/

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Media Contact

Tara Schumacher

Associate Director, External Communications

Corporate Performance & ESG

Wolters Kluwer

Mob: 614-561-2154

tara.schumacher@wolterskluwer.com

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New Wolters Kluwer Survey Finds 86% of North American Finance Teams in Early Stages of AI Adoption

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